Toyah Bio

Toyah is the name of the band fronted by Toyah Willcox between 1977 and 1983. The only other consistent band member throughout this period was Joel Bogen, Willcox's principal co-writer and guitarist.

Back in the National Theatre, when she was 18, Toyah Willcox felt that was the right environment for her to work out how to put a band together: the theatre was full of musicians as well as actors. "Through a series of coincidences I just got involved in a punk band and that was purely from asking around y’know 'Has anybody got a band, does anyone need a singer?'" she remembered. First Toyah ended up in a punk band from Golders Green, which used to rehearse at Golders Green cemetery and even did a few gigs there.